Scandal
by mous1elousi3
Summary: Oh boy, does the Seireitei Communications Monthly have the scoop of a lifetime!


_**A/N: Crazy idea I had a while back.**_

_**Disclaimer: Sure, I own this. And to boost popularity I post my own fanfic too.**_

Standing with his head down and slightly slouched, hands hanging limp at his sides, Hisagi Shuuhei watched the last of this month's edition of the _Seireitei Communication Monthly _go out the doors of the printing room by the stack. It was a great issue. The text had been reviewed at least five times by three different people before they were cleared for printing. The photos were the cleanest they had ever got. The cover story, which took up the first five pages and then some of the middle and a little even of the back, was their biggest scoop yet. Subscriptions and advertisers would be pouring in by the thousands after this. Yet all that Hisagi could think was how this would be the end of him.

His ears were still ringing from Captain Muguruma's scolding.

"You _were the one who told me that this magazine is responsible for keeping the membership up-to-date on current events! Is_ this—" here he tossed the file with the offending pictures onto the desktop between them "—_not a current event?_"

Matsumoto Rangiku winked up at them from the first photograph, her grin broad as she flashed them the v-sign and a peek at her generous bosom. The light behind her gave her golden hair a halo effect and Shuuhei imagined a divine messenger come to spread cheer with her very being. In the second, Kuchiki Byakuya had his eyes closed and a slight furrow in his brow, his lips a thin line. He had long stopped wearing his heirloom scarf and still he looked cold, as if shaved from a solid block of ice. They were a study in contrasts, opposites, chiaroscuro. Before this file appeared Shuuhei would never have put them together in the same sentence to say nothing of a thought.

"_Well, y-yes sir… but the story… it… well it does seem a bit suspect_," he had replied, averting his gaze.

Co-Lieutenant Kuna popped up between them, peeked at the photos a moment and then declared, "_I thought I told you to use my pictures, Kensei!_"

The captain's right eye had twitched then but it was to Shuuhei that he shouted, "_I want this story out at dawn!_"

Shuuhei knew an order when he heard one and so had immediately gone to set the story in with the printers. There were more than a few raised eyebrows. He dropped his gaze away.

Now, as the last stack disappeared through the doors they turned to look at him again. He took a deep breath, released it slowly and then turned around and walked into his office. Shutting and locking the door behind him, he went to his desk and fell heavily into his seat. There was nothing to be done now but wait. It would not be long either for both parties were habitual contributors to the magazine and therefore subscribers. Maybe Rangiku would be the one to deliver the killing blow; it was the best he could hope for.

Mornings at Kuchiki Manor began promptly at four am. With their long history in the Gotei Thirteen through the Sixth Division, the staff at the manor operated in keeping with what was expected of members of a military organisation. As such, the cooking staff woke first to prepare breakfast based on a meal plan created at the start of the week but adjusted only the night before. Next were the handmaids and butlers under the direction of the chief steward to help wake the Clan Head, Lord Byakuya, his sister, Lady Rukia, and their current houseguest, Kurosaki Ichigo. They would also prepare their baths and help them dress, though Ichigo insisted that he could dress himself and complained that Byakuya needed to get modern plumbing.

Breakfast this morning was to be held in the room overlooking the peony garden with the theme "Living World Continental". Lady Rukia had suggested it in honour of their guest and Lord Byakuya had consented to try it with a grunt. The cooks had had quite the evening trying to recreate the recipe with traditional Japanese ingredients! But now, finally, at five-twenty everything was in order.

The places had been set. The water was gently bubbling for the tea. The pastries were fresh out of the oven, steaming lightly. The only thing left was the arrival of their lord, lady and guest. And then the month's edition of _Seireitei Communication Monthly_ arrived with the morning paper.

There was a moment of stunned silence at the cover image when the servant boy tore off the protective brown paper wrapping. It then dragged on for a full minute as the assembled members of the cooking staff took time to process what they were seeing.

The lord was on the cover, though he had his eyes closed and an expression of supreme irritation on his face. That was not the shocking part. Lord Byakuya graced the covers of many publications from time-to-time though he rarely posed and those editions often sold very well. The shocking part came with the inclusion of the smaller photograph of a beautiful, smiling woman and the headline: "_**Love Blooms in the Seireitei? The Secret Love Affair of a Captain and Lieutenant!**_"

Finally, someone got their tongue free and said, "What if we tell him that there was an incident at the printer's and this month's edition has been delayed?"

Murmurs started up, some in agreement with the idea while others pointed out the absurdity of it for surely many members of his division were subscribers and would be reading the story soon. Old Hara, the chief steward grunted and said, "No. This won't do. We'll have to give it to him."

One of the maids fainted. Hara sighed. This was going to be a difficult morning.

Ten minutes later there was a powerful explosion of reiatsu from the Peony Garden Room that sent most of the staff facedown to the floor. Most of them were gasping for breath; some of them had already lost consciousness. At the epicentre, Lady Rukia had fallen forward onto her hands, bowed under the weight of her brother's power unbridled. Next to her the former Shinigami Subsitute was still upright but with an ear-splitting grin as he tried, but failed to suppress his amusement.

In his office halfway across the Seireitei, Shuuhei covered his mouth with both hands and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to stifle a scream.

In stark contrast to her rumoured paramour, Matsumoto Rangiku's mornings began much, much later. Though she lived at the barracks on the division compound, and mornings there began at four-thirty, as lieutenant she had long decided that she was not getting out of bed any earlier than nine. As such, on this particular morning Rangiku was still cocooned in her bed-sheets and nothing else, lost in a sake dream about her childhood in Rukongai and Gin, when Ise Nanao began pounding on her door.

She did not wake immediately either. It was that good of a dream and she had not dreamt of Gin in such a long time.

Then she felt the frost creeping up her leg and woke with a start.

"Captain! What? I'm awake! What is it? What time is it?"

She opened her eyes to find not just Hitsugaya Toshiro but Nanao as well. The light outside was still faint but they were fully dressed, of course. She lifted an eyebrow and asked again, gaze level and voice steady, "What is it? What has happened?"

In reply, Toshiro tossed the magazine at her. It landed just at her feet at the bottom of the futon. She dropped the sheets to retrieve it, ignoring in the process for once the colour that blossomed on her captain's and Nanao's faces at her nakedness. Besides, she had other concerns, like why she was on the cover of _Seireitei Communication Monthly_ with Captain Kuchiki under the headline "_**Love Blooms in the Sei**_—."

Oh…

"The hell is this?" she asked, looking back up at the other two. The expression on her face was the picture of confusion and innocence with brows furrowed and gaze steady, slightly bored even. Only her reiatsu was unsettled, spiking and rumbling in time with her racing heartbeat as she tried and failed to keep calm.

"For god's sake, Matsumoto, do you have to sleep in the nude? What if there was an emergency?" her captain snapped.

"That's what we're asking you," said Nanao, fixing her glasses on her face and setting her gaze just over her friend's left ear. It was the safest place to look at this point.

"But I don't know what it is and you brought it so that's what I'm asking you," said Rangiku, looking back at the magazine cover. "Me and Captain Kuchiki? Has Shuuhei lost his mind?"

He was going to lose something else by the time she finished with him.

Toshiro had his face turned away from her completely, gaze to the ceiling and he remained that way as he replied, "The article documents what it describes as a months-long secret affair between you and the captain of the Sixth. There are times, there are witnesses and most damning of all, Matsumoto, is that there are photographs. Photographs of Kuchiki walking you back to this very division late at night, you departing Kuchiki Manor on another occasion at an odd hour and then one of you two deep in conversation at a tea house in the Seireitei. Tell me that you have not actually been secretly seeing this man and were just waiting for the right moment to share the good news. Tell me that this is a complete fabrication because if it isn't, Matsumoto, this has a potential to tarnish not just your reputation but mine and the Tenth Division as well. You are accused of being his-his _kept woman_."

By the time he ended this speech his eyes were shut tight and his hands were clenched in fists at his sides. The colour remained on his cheeks though and it was this that Rangiku responded to first, teasing, "Aww, Captain, does saying those words embarrass you?"

"Matsumoto!" he ground out through clenched teeth, the furrow in his brow deepening and a vein gaining prominence at his temple.

Well then, show-time.

Sighing dramatically, she tossed the magazine aside, then drew the sheets up again and said, "I'm not. I mean, he did walk me back to the barracks once but you were there, Nanao that was the night of the Captain Commander's party, we just happened to be heading in the same direction for a point. The other picture could have been any night after he kicked us out for having a SWA meeting in his house, the grouch. That manor is certainly big enough to host a few great events at the same time without ever disturbing him. As for that last one, you were there, Captain, don't you remember? That was when Isshin-san came by and he got dragged along. I don't think I was even talking to him; they just cropped the picture to make it look that way. But why would Shuuhei-kun do such a thing? Since when is this magazine a tabloid?"

It was an award-winning performance of a well-rehearsed excuse. Until the very last she was going fight for this secret. Even from her best friend and captain.

"I don't know, but this is a problem. Are you telling us that there isn't anything going on between you and Captain Kuchiki, nothing at all, nothing that's going to surprise us when we get down to the Ninth to talk to Lieutenant Hisagi?" asked Nanao, looking Rangiku in the eyes now. There was no edge of suspicion to her tone, at least, not yet.

Rangiku returned the stare and said, "Absolutely nothing. If there was you know I'd tell you, Nanao. We don't keep secrets like this from each other."

"Well then," said Toshiro, turning to head back out of the room. "We best get going to the Ninth to have a chat with Lieutenant Hisagi. Put some clothes on, Matsumoto, and don't ever let me catch you sleeping like this again. I'll be outside." He then marched out into the hall and shut the door behind him.

Rangiku turned back to Nanao with a grin and said, "Isn't it cute how he's blushing? Captain's growing up!"

"Oh put some clothes on, Hikari Genji, and let's get down to the Ninth," said Nanao.

Byakuya was the first to arrive at the Ninth, with Ichigo, Rukia and his lieutenant, who they had run into on the way, wide-eyed and gaping with a copy of the magazine in his hands. The small party was greeted by a mob at the Division's gates. For a brief moment, Byakuya had hoped that they were there because they were furious about the story on his behalf. Then one of them shouted clear above the others, _"What do you mean there's no more? Print a second run! You guys did it the month Kurosaki Ichigo came to stay!"_

He took a deep, calming breath and started forward for the division gates. As he went he loosened the control on his reiatsu a little. This had the effect of announcing his presence and clearing a path for him as the mob turned to find the source of the immense power approaching them, recognised him and parted down the middle. The division gates remained shut but peepholes were opened and two red-faced and wide-eyed guards looked out, then one of them disappeared. Presumably he was off to tell the captain and lieutenant that they were about to have guests. Byakuya marched on with his head high and tried to ignore the whispers that followed.

"_Hey, it's Captain Kuchiki!_"

"_Hey, hey, do you think he's come to stop the printing?_"

"_Not before I get a copy!_"

"_Do you think that he and Lieutenant Matsumoto are really together? They're complete opposites!_"

That he certainly agreed with, if he was listening, which he was not and so did not hear.

"_Are you kidding me? She's hot! She could probably get the Soul King into her bed if she wanted!_"

"_I wonder where she is._"

Byakuya was beginning to wonder that as well, surprised that she was not there already. At the very least she had to make a token effort at outrage over this incident. Unless of course she had a hand in it, in which case they were going to have a very short but serious conversation. It was one thing to take liberties with the ordinary rank and file of the thirteen divisions but he was not a man to be trifled with. But no, she would not have. Theirs was an unexpected affair but he liked to think it very sincere.

A moment later they felt three powerful reiatsu signatures approaching and then Lieutenant Matsumoto, Lieutenant Ise and Captain Hitsugaya appeared. They paused at the mob, and the sight of Byakuya and his party, and then the younger captain inclined his head slightly at his colleague and said, "Captain Kuchiki."

"Captain Hitsugaya," said Byakuya in turn and then his gaze flicked over to the boy's lieutenant.

Rangiku was not looking at him, did not even appear to have heard him. Her chin-length hair had been ruffled by the wind, a few errant strands stuck to her cheeks and lips. Her uniform looked as if it was in danger of slipping off, as usual, exposing her generous bosom and, of late, the length of a leg. But she was not smiling, instead her bright blue eyes were narrowed and gaze firmly set on the closed gates of the Ninth. The whispers started up again.

"_Oh my god, she even makes angry beautiful!_"

"_Did she look at Captain Kuchiki? Did you guys see any greeting?_"

Then the doors to the Ninth were thrown open and Byakuya turned again to find Captain Muguruma Kensei and his two lieutenants, Kuna and Hisagi, behind him. He stood in the centre of the path with his arms folded and glaring at the assembled mob. Lieutenant Hisagi kept his head down, not even looking up as Lieutenant Kuna bounced at his arm and said, "Oh look, Shuu-kun! They've come to see what's going on!"

Then Kensei said to Byakuya, "What are you doing here?"

"Your 'story' is a fiction. I want it retracted with a formal apology," he replied, his tone even, calm. The Sixth Division captain was, as usual, the embodiment of cool.

"No," said Kensei, without a moment's hesitation. "Those photographs say otherwise, and the letters that accompanied it. We have a thick folder of evidence to support it."

There may have appeared then a few cracks at the edge of Byakuya's stony façade. Still, he willed himself to remain steady as he said, "That story is fictitious. There is no relationship between myself and Lieutenant Matsumoto. I will not have my reputation tarnished by your attempts at manufacturing a scandal for profit."

"No," said Kensei again, unfazed. "I've just gotten finished with the second print run. I'm not retracting anything." Standing there, he looked neither pleased nor upset about the situation. In fact, he just looked annoyed, which was his usual expression so that was neither here nor there. It was appalling really, how little he cared about how he was disrupting Byakuya's life and one very good and previously well-kept secret.

Here Rangiku marched forward, protesting, "Now see here, Captain Muguruma. We're telling you that the story is not true. You need to retract it… or do you want the SWA onto you guys?"

He lifted an eyebrow slightly at this but then Lieutenant Kuna said, "No way! We're not scared! We're making lots of money with this! More than this magazine has ever made, we're not taking it back! Tell them, Kensei. Tell them we're not taking it back!"

"Shut up, Mashiro!" he snapped and then to the others, "We can't do that. Besides, if you read the article you will see that we tried to get comments from you two about it. You both ignored it. Then the Captain Commander himself came to us with a story about you two disappearing at a party he threw, a story we had not even heard anything about."

Rangiku went wide-eyed and then swung around to look at Nanao, who released a sigh and said, "I will have to have a chat with the commander…"

"That was a misinterpretation, we just happened to be there at the same time for the same event," said Byakuya.

"According to you who has absolutely no reason for denying it of course," said Kensei. "However, the commander talked long and hard about how great this would be for the Seireitei, good news after everything. I understand that sometimes people don't want to share but he felt that we should, my own lieutenant agree that we should bring to the people the truth, after that how could we not print it?"

"But we're telling you it's not true!" snapped Matsumoto.

Kensei shrugged and said, "Listen, I don't really care but this is the best issue this magazine has printed in years. We're not retracting the story. Good day." Then he turned on his heels and began marching back towards the barracks.

Byakuya and Rangiku both made to follow but he paused and said, "Take one step into this division and we'll take it as an act of aggression." They both came to an abrupt halt, stunned, and the doors were shut in their faces.

For a time after this there was silence outside the gates of the Ninth Division as everyone stood staring in shock at the shut doors. And then Rangiku swung back to her group and started marching out, saying, "He can't do that! Come on, Nanao, we've got to go see the commander!"

Byakuya was way ahead of her. The moment the doors had shut he disappeared in a burst of shunpo. That of course left his sister and Ichigo to face the crowd.

"_Hey, Lieutenant Kuchiki, you knew about this right? What do you think about the captain and Lieutenant Matsumoto?"_

"_Kurosaki-kun, did you see anything? You've been staying at the manor, surely you've seen something?"_

"_Lieutenant Kuchiki! Is Lieutenant Matsumoto going to be your new sister-in-law?"_

"_Kurosaki Ichigo, is there any truth to the rumours about you and Lieutenant Kuchiki?"_

"_Man! I could have sworn Captain Kuchiki was into Lieutenant Abarai!"_ There was a pause, and then someone else said, _"You need to stop reading so much yaoi!"_

Ichigo and Rukia exchanged a look with Renji and promptly vanished as well.

Hisagi did not allow himself a sigh of relief for surviving the encounter without either Byakuya or Rangiku glancing in his direction, even when his captain named him as being partly responsible. In fact, the moment his captain's back was turned he took a burst of shunpo out of the Ninth Division off in the trail of Rangiku's reiatsu. At all cost, she had to know that he had tried everything in his power to stop the "story" from getting out. Captain Muguruma was just being ridiculous and they would no doubt have to print a retraction by the end of the day. Really, how could he possibly think it was a good idea? Captain Kuchiki and Rangiku? Hell would freeze over sooner.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he did not realise that Rangiku's reiatsu had veered off in the wrong direction until he was standing at the First Division gates and found it instead behind him. And it was heading off instead to the Rukongai…what?

He wasted no time in giving chase. Knowing Rangiku, she had probably decided that she did not care enough to get the story retracted and had just decided to go drink her problems away. It was not as if anyone was really going to take the story seriously if they ignored it. They should have just ignored it. Captain Kuchiki could have sent a family lawyer around to the Ninth with a stern letter and a demand for an immediate retraction and apology in a day or two. Rangiku would have still come running to let Captain Muguruma know exactly what she thought of him and the article, but that was normal. That they came running to personally protest, apparently together though, well, he hated to admit it but it just added fuel to the fire. Of course, if only Hisagi had been a little more forceful though none of this would have happened in the first place.

They were well into the Second District of the Rukongai when Rangiku's reiatsu suddenly vanished from Hisagi's radar. He came to an abrupt halt immediately, to find that that they were in the middle of some nondescript neighbourhood of a small, rural town. What the hell was she doing here? And especially since there was not a bar in sight?

Somewhere in the back of Hisagi's mind a voice whispered, _a rendezvous point?_

He scoffed at the idea and set off trying to narrow the possibilities for where last he had felt her presence. He walked ahead until he was nearly out of the town, in a heavily wooded area where an old, crumbling estate stood, filled with overgrowth and birdsong, and that was when he heard voices.

"_Hey, I didn't want this to get out there as much as you! It may not seem like it to you but I like to have _some_ privacy. Some things are no one's business."_

That was Rangiku, but who was she talking to?

"_I did not mean to imply that you d—"_

"_Bullshit! You damn well meant to imply that I had something to do with it! But what would be the point? You think I want what's coming? You think I want people to think that I started this or that I'm after money or something crazy like that?"_

"_Rangiku, maybe it will not be so bad."_

Hisagi suppressed a gasp. That guy, for surely it was a guy with that baritone, had just said her name without an honorific. Even Kurosaki Ichigo used an honorific when speaking to her and he almost never did that for anybody. Then Rangiku said, _"I'm going to look like a gold digger or worse. Are you kidding me? You're worth much more than I and don't pretend that you're not."_

Hisagi's brow furrowed, surely she could not be speaking to who he thought she was.

"_I never said I was but maybe we're over-reacting. If we don't say anything it will just go away."_

"_A little late for that now, don't you think?"_

"_Perhaps…but then perhaps it would not be so bad for us to issue a joint statement? One in which we do not deny a thing and just ask to be left alone? What are you afraid of?"_

Hisagi's heart had skipped a beat and now he was having trouble breathing. So she really was involved with Captain Kuchiki? Because that was definitely the captain there and what he just said proved it. What the hell?

"_Nothing. Do I look afraid? I'm concerned. Very concerned about how this is going to ruin my life."_

"_Stop being melodramatic. Would it be so terrible to tell the truth and get on with our lives? This could be for the best."_

"The best? _You talk as if your family won't have a problem. As if the nobility won't have a problem. As if there won't be _expectations._ I'm not that kind of girl. I don't want _this_."_

"_But we already have _this_. Do not pretend that you expected us to continue like this forever. Surely you knew that one day things would change and perhaps progress for the better. And it could be better. I would much prefer to be able to walk through the streets with you in the middle of the day than to slip away like some kind of rebellious child in the night. I am not that person anymore. I swore to myself that I would never do this again."_

A sigh, a long silence and then she said, _"Kuchiki Byakuya, I have said it before and I will say it again: you are too good of a man for a girl like me. I don't want serious. I don't want to be tied down. I need my freedom. I need to be able to drink myself silly and dress the way I want and go where I want and do what I want without worrying about expectations and rules and how it's going to reflect on others later. You know full well that your family won't let me have that, even if they let you be with me. You may be head of that clan but that comes with responsibilities that I don't want to shoulder. Being lieutenant of the Tenth, yeah, that I can handle. That's all I need."_

This was followed by another long silence and then Captain Kuchiki said, _"I cannot promise you that things won't change if we admit it…but you have to admit that we are not free even now. How can I be free when my time, my thoughts, my feelings…are for you? You admitted yourself that you cannot stand that we have so little time together. I care very much for your happiness and I would do everything in my power to ensure that you are happy."_

There was another sigh and then Rangiku said, _"You are a very dangerous man, Kuchiki Byakuya. When you talk to a girl like that you make it very hard for her to turn you down."_

Hisagi had heard enough. He turned around and fled back to the Seireitei as quickly as his legs could take him. There was going to be a much bigger scandal later today and he wanted to be as far away as possible when it broke. Preferably drunk out of his mind. That bastard.


End file.
